F.P.C.'s Head Warns Power Shortages Are Possible Next Winter

WASHINGTON, Aug. 10— With the nation not yet through its summer power shortages, the chairman of the Federal Power Commission warned to day that further shortages were Possible next winter.

John N. Nassikas, the chair man, told a luncheon audience at the National Press Club here that next winter would bring power troubles if deficiencies in fuel supplies were not over come and if the weather was unusually severe.

He indicated that the com mission would have a better idea of the dimensions of the problem within 30 days, when the results of a national inven tory of fuel were scheduled to be in.

Some Curtailment Feared

He said that the shortage of coal, oil, and natural gas used to fire boilers in electrical generating plants “is the most acute phase of our developing energy crisis.”

He said that such shortages were “dwarfing the formidable problem of installing, adequate generation and transmission fa cilities to meet short‐term de mand.” He also said that the shortages would mean higher electric and oil bills next winter.

“If we are successful in meet ing fuel problems this winter,” he said, “I do not anticipate a generalized electric power shortage.”.

Mr. Nassikas, who has been in office for a year, said “it may be necessary to curtail some industrial gas service in the New England area and in the Middle West.”

But he added that “gas dis tribution companies should be able to meet all essential resi dential and commercial cus tomer needs unless an unusually severe winter is encountered.”

Coal, which provides 21 per cent of the nation's energy, is short because new Federal min ing safety and health regula tions have slowed production, rail transport is inadequate and coal exports are up.

Oil, which provides 43 per cent of the energy, is short because of the Middle Eastern crisis, cutbacks in oil from Libya and inadequate tanker capacity.

Natural gas provides 33 per cent of the energy and is criti cally short because gas com panies have cut back on dis covery and exploitation of new fields.

Mr. Nassikas was asked whether he thought the com panies had done that to force up the price of gas. He said no but did not elaborate.

He said that increasingly re strictive antipollution standards had been partly responsible for the energy crisis. He called for a “balanced energy and envi ronmental policy.”

“Environmental standards must permit a transitional period allowing construction and operation of facilities to proceed,” he said. He said that all methods of power genera tion produced some kind of waste:

“Such waste products, or thermal effects, will have an impact on the environment that cannot be completely avoided despite the most serious ef forts to minimize these conse quences,” he contended.

He said that the best hope for an ultimate solution to the energy crisis was nuclear power. But installation of nu clear power generation is lag ging two years behind schedule and will not provide significant amounts of energy until. the nineteen‐eighties, he said.

The lag, Mr. Nassikas said, was due to delays in delivery of equipment from manufac turers, opposition to proposed sites of the plants and techno logical problems.

He criticized the electric utilities for not spending enough on nuclear research. In the last four years, he said, the Atomic Energy Commission has spent $75‐million, manu facturers $25‐million and pri vate utilities only $5‐million on fast breeder reactor research.

He said that the utilities should spend more “to ac celerate the development of vitally needed nuclear facilities to reduce environmental im pact and meet power demand during the remainder of the 20th century.

He urged that comprehensive new antitrust legislation be passed to allow companies in the power industry to adopt economies of large‐scale op eration and to be managed more efficiently.

He said that he did not favor a national power grid run by the Federal Govern ment. Instead, he suggested that improved connections be tween existing power com panies would be desirable even if they were undertaken by the Federal Government.

Better interchanges of power, he said, would have helped to resolve the problems of Con solidated Edison in New York.

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A version of this archives appears in print on August 11, 1970, on Page 20 of the New York edition with the headline: F.P.C.'s Head Warns Power Shortages Are Possible Next Winter. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe